Landships II

Here's an extraordinary thing. Very much off-topic, but I crave your indulgence.

My significant other used to work for The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). She was sent to many trouble spots, witnessed numerous humanitarian crises, saw massacres or the aftermath thereof on several occasions, and came close to being killed herself in various chaotic countries around the world. I'm not making this up.

Anyway, in February 1998 she was sent to northern Afghanistan for a month to help oganise relief after a major earthquake. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_1998_Afghanistan_earthquake. Read Relief efforts.

Of course, she told me about all that.

Now, during our years together, she has pretended to be interested in my little hobby of Landships and associated matters. While I was working on this article the other night, I said, "Of course, you were in Afghanistan, weren't you?"

"Yes," she replied.

"But not in Kabul?"

"Kabul? Yes, I was in Kabul for about 4 months, staying in an ICRC residence."

"What? You never told me that!"

"I must have done."

"I would have remembered. That's what this article is all about. Did you know about this scrapyard?"

"I used to drive past it every day. Everybody knew about it. It was famous."

So she was unwittingly in the presence of the FTs five years before they were discovered by the military historians described by Colonel Redding.

Photo from earthquake zone enclosed. My missus-to-be marshalling locals to unload supplies. (The area was controlled by the Northern Alliance. Photography was not allowed in Kabul, which was controlled by the Taliban)